Coffee: doomed by global warming?

Time to start panicking:

Researchers at Kew believe that the wild arabica coffee bean, whose cultivated cousin is the basis of most of the coffee drunk around the world, could die out in the wild within 70 years. If it does, a main source of genetic diversity, essential in maintaining the health of the cultivated crop, will be lost.

So reports The Times today [£]. Something must be done – future generations of Tinworths will need their coffee as much as I do.

Still, it’s strangely reassuring to know that Kew has a head of coffee research…